The depleted Dwightless Magic easily handle The Pistons 104-91

When the Pistons took the court against a Magic team that were bit by the flu bug, there was a good chance they could add a W in the win column. Well, these aren’t the good old days…or the old days, or the dare I say the almost teal years. With Dwight Howard, J.J. Redick, Jameer Nelson and Mickael Pietrus out for the Magic, they still handily beat the Pistons on their home court 104-91.

Key Points:

Should I go into just how miserable and uninerested this whole team looked last night?

The Magic rode Vince Carter right from the start and he didn’t disappoint, in fact he himself scored 10 of the Magics first 12 points finishing the game with 25 points.

Not a great game for Danny to fly in for, in fact we pretty much expressed our disappointment in the team the entire game.

DPN for Will Bynum…guess T-Mac is the new backup PG.

Kuester – “We’re searching every possible way and Will is somebody who is going to be a part of this before its all over. Were trying to get a number of guys opportunities and find the right combination of guys that are going to play together. That’s the most important thing. We came into this game and talked about taking care of the basketball. 24 assists and only 13 turnovers and we’ve been consistent that way now we got to get our defense squared away.”

Surprised to look at the box score this morning to see that Prince with the game high of 30 points on 11-15 shooting with 5 assists. That may have been the quietest 30 points I ever witnessed. It may be because of the loss and the fact that if they couldn’t win this game, when can they win?

Brandon Bass loves to put up numbers against Detroit. Bass didn’t miss a shot in eight tries in the first half on his way to leading the Magic with 27 points.

Prince has hit 35 of 60 shots and averaging 21.3 points over the last four games.

Detroit another second half meltdown, they were outscored 50-36.

Calling Rip Hamilton and Ben Gordon! Ben Gordon 2-for-11 for 5 points in 30 minuts and Rip Hamilton 3-for-9 for 10 points. We need more from both of them to be successful.

No Piston player had a + rating.

Austin Daye actually played his normal position, taking Tayshaun’s spot on court, but didn’t do much in his 5 minutes on the floor and didn’t return in the second half.

Villanueva 6-for-11 for 15 points with 3 boards , 2 blocks and a steal in 29 minutes. I know he loves the three (3-for-7) but he really can play down low, especially against a depleted team.

Photo/Getty Images editing Need4Sheed.com

Villanueva – What can I say, I guess they just wanted it more than us. They were short-handed, they came ready to play. It seemed like it was hard for us to get into a flow out there. Everything seems hard for us. I have no idea what it is. It’s just hard, it’s hard. I can’t put my finger on it.
Just the fact that us losing in Orlando the way we did, I thought we would come back and put a fight up, now they were short-handed. I don’t know, man, I don’t know.

I’ve been to just one game (a Sunday) that I haven’t seen Ndamukong Suh.

Maxiell starts, but plays just 20 minutes when he was 3-for-3 for 6 points and zeros in the rest of his stat line.

Stuckey 3-for-9 for 11 with 7 assists.

The other Ben (Gordon) led the team in rebounds with 9. Really?

Speaking of Bens’, sadly it looks like Wallace can’t handle much more of the grind. I hope I’m wrong about that.

I don’t think they’ve giving up. I just think they don’t know how to win. The first step to winning is having fun and no one is having fun out there. I don’t know what Q is preaching to the team but LB used to always tell the team to have fun no matter what. Losing is not fun but i honestly think the Pistons don’t have any confidence. They don’t go into games knowing they can win or probably even thinking they can win. No one shows any emotion and there like robots out there. I’m not in the fire Q category but Maxiel and Ben is a bad front court starting combo. You have to play Ben with a scoring Big, Even Ben said that when he was struggling in Chicago. Your basically playing 3 on 5 offensively. Prince is playing his but off but he has no one to compliment him. Just about every team has at least two people in their starting lineup who compliments each other and Detroit doesn’t have that yet, and i think that is what Q is trying to find with all these different lineups which i know the players are probably getting tired of but this is their job. That’s just my opinion though.

that was embarassing ! our interior defense just don’t exist. CV may be better offensively, he is shooting 3’s very well, but he is just the worst defender I have ever seen. I don’t like how we look right now, and it is just not a Detroit Pistons type basketball team. we are soft, no defense, lack of effort…. we really need changes and start rebuilding right now. I know we are in the middle of rebuilding process, but it is really sad to watch this squad..

Players I want to keep :
Stuckey ( but only if he plays like yesterday.. only Stuck and Prince were our good players, Stuck distributed the ball really well and didn’t force anything… when he is driving to the hoop like crazy – > the whole team hurts..)
Monroe
Jerebko
Prince
Daye
Big Ben
Ben Gordon

Is it me or is this deja vu the ole Michael Curry way of coaching… and we all know how that turned out. “Pick a line up any line up” this is gonna be another looooooooooooong season and looking at the calender Nat made for us (Thanks Nat) we have 2 possible wins left.

I agree with Del and Normal two. Also, I think we need a big man, someone who is not a developing player like Monroe. Some one who has been playing the game for a while like Ben, but like a half a foot taller and a lot better on offense. I still love Ben but we need another big that is good. Sorry maxi. Also, what happened to RIP? Rest in peace more like it. His offense is sad compared to the old days. We need to drop him fro a real SG, a.k.a someone who can still score.

weird how tayshuan goes on a lot of scoring these past couple of games and we are starting to loose after winning a few games in a row. He cant be a scorer if he doesnt want to close out the game. if you put yourself as someone who needs to score people are going to look at you when the game is on the line. im kind of sad that tayshaun didnt step up cause as the post said, that was a quiet 30 points from tay.

I think we shoud use Daye’s size & ability to play in no2. He’s not that bad clutch player, and he needs minutes.
& try to get a trade with Sacramento. They’re pack in frontcourt and would use a wing player, but who wants Rip’s contract, so use Prince, we’re rebuilding and we have lottery in 2011 guaranteed so…

I just want to play the guys that want to play. I’m not sure you were watching the same game i was, that was not a quiet 30, Prince did everything assists, scoring, he was given the ball with seconds on the shot clock, he defended, he stepped it up.

Maxiell is only good coming off the bench same as his entire career. He has a few good games, but give him too many minutes and he burns out. Ben Wallace is done, Ben Gordon has effort but he can’t doesnt want it-is scared of something-he can’t shoot, Rip doesn’t care, Wilcox is awful. T-mac looks like his knees are made of eggshells, very smart at the power point, but can’t play minutes. Daye has a sweeeet shot, but just can’t get it done anywhere else on the court. He needs another year, physically he is just not ready for the NBA.

Stuckey has been our best player this year. Prince has stepped it up. Charlie V is becoming a fan favorite. Monroe has stepped it up.

here’s how I see it, we got 4 players on our team:

Stuckey, Prince, Charlie V, Monroe

And I guess we have to play either Rip or Ben Gordon so it’s Ben Gordon since he seems to care.

We have the softest team in the NBA. We don’t get into someone’s poster, we duck and cover when someone goes to the hole. When it seems like another team is better than us, we pack it in, like a union man taking an early lunch.

We have the team with the least amount of depth in the NBA. We spent all our money on Rip, Charlie, Prince, Ben Gordon, Charlie V, Wilcox and Maxiell, and simply not getting value for them, except for Charlie V.

T-mac is fine, we are getting a vet for a million. That’s what this team needs value players, players that are worth more than we are paying them, so we can get some depth. I think it’s fine if t-mac tries to rehab here and then leaves, when you are building a new program, you want to build confidence too, and t-mac brings that even if he brings nothing else.

Prince is gonna leave for sure, so after the trading deadline we are gonna have 3 players that seem to care and can play, Stuckey, Charlie V, and Monroe, maybe Jerebko if he heals up by then.

I am seriously tempted to turn off my television until Jerebko comes back not because of losing, I can stand losing, I’m a michigan fan! What I can’t stand is the lack of effort.

How could Kuester bench WB? Is it his fault alone this team sucks? He could have benched any player and got the same results. First off they have too many guards. So now I guess theyre gonna settle for busted up Tmac; good luck with that. Wonder whats gonna happen when Terrico heals? Or Jonas comes back? The team needs a HEAD COACH who knows how to effectively rotate his players and get them OUT of the game when they are off. He needs to know who can finish a game and who can’t. Kuester is an old fool who benched the Pistons ONLY true point guard. Send THRILL somewhere where he can be appreciated. I bet he’ll run circles around Stuckey, Gordon and Tmac!